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Published: August 4th 2006
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I'm sure some of you are getting sick of these by now, althought you're probably not the ones reading this right now... lol.
First to answer some of the questions people have been asking:
- Comayagua has a population (according to my guide book from 2003) of 7,700.
- As for schools, I am not sue how many there are. My feeling is that they are mostly private schools. There are actually a couple bilingual schools like EBH, I am told. I think I've seen about 4 schools so far.
- No McDonalds in Comayagua. Wendy's is as close as it gets. I'll let you know when I find one in another city... lol
So... Day 3. Woke up at 6 this time to hear the roosters but quickly ignored them and went back to bed until 8:30. Perhaps I'm learning to block them out. Had breaky (our usual of toast and jelly, as that was what was here for us when we arrived), had a shower (NO SHOCKS THIS TIME! Yahoo!), and then set out around 10:30. We've decided that to do things, we should leave in the morning and complete what we need to by about 1,
then be back in the house between 1 and about 5 (as that is when it is the hottest outside and the sun is the highest) and then head out again in the evening but aim to be back by 7pm as it's dark by 7:30. I've decided that although the temperature here in lower (even with the humidex), the sun is a lot more vibrant or something like that. It beats down so much warmer. Is that even scientifically possible? lol...
So we decided to head up to La Parque Central and La Cathedral de Santa Maria, as we had passed both in the car on our tour on day one and thought they were beautiful.
We came across another park that looked similar but not as big, noticing a monument that had been explained to us on the tour but we forget. We later looked it up in our guide books and realised it was called La Picota and was erected in honour of the liberal Spanish Constitution of 1812 to show it's loyalty to Spain when the rest of the country (and continent) was heading towards independence. (Pictures of this and the area it's in
called the 'Plaza La Merced')
Shortly down the road, we found the park and cathedral. So beuatiful. It was like a new world compared to some of the other areas of Comayagua. The park was so well kept and lovely. There was spanish music playing and lots of people sitting around on benches nearby. What looked like a homeless man approached us, asking for money I'd assume but we just said "No Entiendo" and when he realised we didn't respond to his Spanish after awhile, he left.
We walked into the Cathedral and it had beautiful high ceilings, paintings on the walls, and the front of it was all gold plated. It was awesome. We didn't take pictures inside because we weren't sure if we should but there are plenty of pics I'll post from the outside. You'll see the big clock tower as well. The cathedral itself was built over a period of more than 100 years, between 1580 and 1708. The clock tower was built in 1650, and holds one of the oldest known clocks in the world.
We then went over to the tourist information center. The woman did not speak any English but
we were able to communicate with her somewhat. She kept trying to say something and we didn't understand but eventually Jill pulled out her dictionary and the woman was abe to say "Welcome". Hehe... all that for one word. We bought a better local map than the one we had, a few postcards, and signed the tourist book with our names and Canada. There had been quite a few others from there as well. Very neat.
We then wanted to get some groceries. One the way, we found a nice bakery and ended up buying these things that look kind of like tea biscuits but have sugar on the top, and taste more like a pastry. They were 10 lempira (which is about 50 cents US) and we got a bag of 12. SO good! Jills and I have decided that we're either going to get very fat from the fried foods and sweets that they seem to have a lot of here, or we're going to lose weight from all the walking we'll be doing plus the sweating that comes along with the walking. haha.
We then found a cute souvenir shop where the young woman who
Parque Central 3
The building in the back is the Tourist Information Building and Municipal Government building worked there spoke some english and was very polite. They had some great things in the store. I'm thinking of some awesome Christmas presents that I could buy there.
We finally got to the supermarket, and picked up some food for the next week or so. While in there, a security officer came over to me and was saying something to me that I didn't understand. I again said "no entiendo" (most useful phrase ever!) and by gestures he was able to communicate that we weren't meant to have our backpacks on in the store. I tried to ask where we put them but he didn't understand so he made so gesture saying 'don't worry about it' and walked away. Same thing happened to Jill in a department store yesterday but they let us go. Too funny. I guess they figure we're not much of a threat.
We came home, made spaghetti for lunch then lied down for a siesta. Jill and I totally don't know why we're so tired (we both had about 9 hours of sleep the night before) but we were exhausted so both napped for a couple hours.
By 6 we decided to
head out again. We decided to do a long walk down one of the main boulevards in town. It was nice. It was a really long road but traffic was less and there were lots of people out jogging along the road. I guess because it's paved, and less busy, it's a nice road for runners. We got quite a few cat calls, hissing, and kissy noises from some local men. The worst was a group of construction workers. All I understood from what they were yelling however, was "siniorita". Meh... starting to learn to ignore it.
At the end of the boulevard, it meets the highway and just across the street is a hotel called "Santa Maria" that has a beautiful pool (from the pics we saw) that we may try to go to sometime in the next couple days. We then walked home and the whole walk took us just over an hour.
For dinner, I made turkey sausage in a stirfry with garlic, green pepper, red onion, and rice. Quite good if I do say so myself. Jills then taught me a really fun card game called "double deck" which we played a few times
(and she totally kicked my butt at!) before coming up here to type up our daily reports of Comayagua.
Another great day. More photos later... they're taking too long.
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Pallesh
non-member comment
So glad you two are able to venture out and get a feel for the place...the monuments and history sound facinating. I guarantee in a weeks time you won't even hear the roosters! It's amazing what you get used to. Forgot to ask if there is a time change where you are. Too bad about McDonalds...lol